We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Terms of use. Fluix (which begins at $20 per user per month for the Starter plan) is a document management (DM) tool noted for streamlining rote tasks around corporate documents, improving workforce efficiency, and enabling compliance with business processes and legal requirements. While it offers a web app, this is limited in features and functionality compared to the iPad app, which offers the full feature set. There is no Android version, however, which might be a point of conflict for organizations not focused on the Apple iPad. While the focus of Fluix is on document tasks such as form completion, routing, approvals, and signatures, Fluix also supports document storage with role-based permissions as well as connections to several cloud storage providers or existing on-premises storage through standard protocols. However, shortcomings in device options and even basic collaboration capabilities keep it behind our Editors' Choice winners Ascensio System OnlyOffice and Microsoft SharePoint Online in our DM software review roundup. Getting Started With Fluix To fully leverage Fluix, there are some basic management tasks you'll want to perform early in the process. Users can be added either one at a time or by importing a CSV file. Integration with Microsoft's Active Directory (AD) is offered only with the enterprise service plan, but customers opting not to go with the enterprise tier shouldn't miss the feature too much. For those that don't require a connection to an enterprise AD environment, the next logical step after creating your users is creating groups. Fluix uses groups to handle workflow assignments as well as provide more granularity over some configuration items, including workflow and mobile app behavior as well as sharing options.The most complex configuration process you'll find in Fluix, as with most document management systems, will be building your workflows. A big part of creating a workflow in any system involves understanding and defining the business processes that the workflow is supporting. Once this definition is in place, you can begin creating rules. Given Fluix's emphasis on the Apple iPad, if your process doesn't involve that device, then you're best off deciding whether or not it can, and then whether or not it should. If the answer to both is yes, then you can continue with Fluix. To help with workflows, Fluix lets you create rules that retrieve documents from various folders in your Fluix cloud storage as well as whatever remote storage your business uses. To make that easier, Fluix extends direct support to a variety of popular third-party cloud storage platforms, including Dropbox Business, Google Drive for Work, and Microsoft OneDrive for Business, as well as other hosted storage, as long as it's accessible using either the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or Webdav protocols. The flexibility of reaching out to cloud-based storage or on-premises resources is a particularly useful feature and gives some much-needed flexibility to Fluix considering its rather narrow device focus. Fluix Security Most document management systems offer some level of security, either by restricting access to certain folders, limiting features, or providing access to administrative functions. Fluix handles this through the use of roles, which are functionally different than groups. Roles can be created by using templates designed for various administrative or user roles, or from a blank template you can customize yourself. Roles are assigned to users (not groups) and cover different permission categories. Global permissions involve access to areas in Fluix that are generally limited to administrative or management users, such as billing, dashboards, remote storage, reports, roles, and settings. Roles can also be used to manage user permissions when it comes to performing administrative tasks on storage folders, groups, and workflows. You can use various security settings to control things such as iOS application behavior, two-factor authentication (2FA) for the admin portal, password complexity, and document retention periods. Other settings involving file sharing, editing, and synching have security impacts as well and can be configured globally or at the group level. Enable a Paperless Workforce Where Fluix excels is at handling certain types of document collaboration. Given its iPad focus, it's not surprising that its collaboration capabilities are particular to those common in most mobile scenarios, such as form completion and electronic signatures. The tool sets in the Fluix mobile apps are ideal for mobile workers with a need to fill a form, gather signatures, and submit the form electronically using a mobile device. Again, you'll find good support for all of this in the Fluix iOS app. Unfortunately, while there's a web browser app available if you want to use your desktop, it's actually not as feature-complete as the iOS version so evaluate it carefully to make sure the features you need are available. And for those who want to use an Android-based mobile device, it's either the web browser or nothing. Fluix has no Android version of its app available at the time of this writing.Another downside to its iPad concentration is that most folks don't create documents on the iPad yet, unless they're forms. That's evident in Fluix, as the app doesn't give you much in terms of document creation, either in terms of collaboration or document editing tools. Even basic tasks like changing document text styles or color will need to be accomplished outside of Fluix, and sharing is limited to sending an email with the document attached. Editing PDF files in Fluix is limited to things such as annotations and changing page order. These feature omissions don't impact the core focus Fluix places on enabling paperless business processes, but they are a common use case for many businesses looking into a document management platform, and they simply aren't supported with Fluix. That can make it a tough sell when compared to more full-featured solutions, Microsoft SharePoint Online or even Adobe Document Cloud Standard. Pricing Fluix has recently changed its pricing plans. The Starter plan is the lowest tier and runs $20 per user per month (with a minimum of 10 users), with support for password policies and document sharing. The Core tier now goes for $30 per month but adds a host of features, including workflow, permissions, access to the web app, compliance with several privacy standards, and the inclusion of phone support. Finally, there is an Advanced plan, whose cost climbs to $50 per user per month. But this plan add dashboards for reporting and administration, custom service-level agreements (SLAs), audit logs, integration with AD, and support for integration with third-party services. The only knock against Fluix's Starter tier is that its storage maximum is only 5 GB and this tier also lacks custom document retention capabilities. This is a key area for businesses looking to move into electronic document management, as it's often a key measure against serious legal ramifications. Fortunately, both the Core and Advanced tiers support this feature. Given its specific emphasis on only certain document management capabilities as well as its heavy dependence on the iOS platform, Fluix really only makes sense for businesses that are heavily involved with mobile forms processing using the iPad. The challenge is that other document management solutions can also streamline those tasks, perhaps with less polish and a bit more complexity, but often with more competitive pricing and certainly with more room for process growth should the business' needs change. Bottom Line: Fluix features impressive document workflows and integration with popular cloud storage providers most small to midsize businesses (SMBs) already use. Yet the tool's stifled by lack of support for sharing, document storage, or enterprise-level features, including file retention.

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